Terror At Sea Caught On Camera After Whale Capsizes Boat In California

Dale Frink is no stranger to animals but it looks like the wildlife photographer got a little too close for comfort to his subject on his last assignment.

Frink was on board a boat off the coast of San Diego photographing two blue whales feeding on krill. He was joined by the ship's captain, Cici Sayers, who was piloting the vessel. The trip started out smoothly until one of the whales dove and re-emerged, lunging on top of their boat, capsizing the vessel and sending both Sayers and Frink into the ocean.

The incident was caught on the boat's camera, capturing Sayers' scream followed by Frink yelling, "oh my god". Both the captain and passenger are seen tumbling out of the boat as the ship flips over.

Another nearby whale-watching boat saw the two go overboard and managed to rescue them, Sky News reports. Both were unharmed save for minor bruises.

Despite the tumble into the sea, Frink chalks the incident as a freak accident.

"The captain was doing her best to follow good whale watching practices by maintaining a distance of greater than 100 yards (I would say we were about 150 yards away) and going into neutral once the whale turned to cross the bow, but unfortunately the whales came up exactly behind us with no time to react," Frink wrote on his Facebook page.